The M10 / Achilles / Wolverine Tank Destroyer

In 1942 it had been planned to create a British tank destroyer but with the availability of the M10 these projects were put on hold. The M10 was first made available a the end of 1942, these vehicles were open topped and mounted a 3" American gun, this weapon was significantly more powerful than the 6 Pounder that mounted British tanks of the period and slightly better than the 75mm guns used by the Panzer IV. These M10s were given the name "Wolverine".

The M10 was light, relatively fast and had decent armament but the turret was poorly balanced which lead to very slow turret rotation speeds, later versions had counterweights added to help with this issue. The armour on the M10 was very thin, thinner than that of the Sherman's and thus offered little protection against the newer German guns but the open top, despite the additional vulnerability offered excellent visibility for the crew.

The British made several modifications to the M10, additional 17mm thick armour plates were welded to the front and sides of the M10, also a 20mm thick shield was fitted to the top of the turret to give extra protection to the crew. The biggest change to the M10 was the removal of the American 3" gun and replacing it with a British 17pdr, the 17pdr had vastly superior anti-tank performance to the 3" gun and virtually all M10s received by the British mounted a 17pdr by the end of the war - these were known as the Achilles.

The first conversions to carry a 17pdr were carried out in April 1944, by June 124 M10s had been converted, by the end of the year this had been increased to 816 with 152 vehicles being converted in November alone. Around 1,650 M10 tank destroyers were received by the British, of these 1,100 were converted by the end of the war.